


In Sickness

by orphan_account



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-06
Updated: 2011-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-16 03:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max!fic in which Max and his Bine have a case of the sniffles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Sickness

On Tuesday, Max had to go to the doctor.

He had a high fever that made his mouth dry, his face hot, and his bones achingly cold. He couldn’t breathe out his nose without blowing bubbles. Worst of all, though, he had a bad cough. It made his chest and lungs hurt when he coughed hard, and he had to cough hard all the time…occasionally so hard that he threw up like he did on Daddy that morning.

Bine was sick, too, same as Max, but he didn’t have to go to the doctor. He stayed in bed, buried under the covers, and told Daddy it would be pointless for him to go to the doctor, since Max was already going.

Daddy bounced Max on his hip and looked down at Bine. “You have the logic of a child.”

Bine moved a little under the covers.

“Are you at least going to give the three-year-old who’s fighting your battles a kiss goodbye?” Daddy sat Max down on the bed.

Bine said a grown-up word at Daddy. He made a hole in the covers, though, and let Max crawl through. Grabbed him and held him close.

“Be brave, Monster,” Bine said against Max’s cheek. Kissed him. Bine’s face was hot, stubble scratchy. It was dark and warm under the covers. Damp like fevers and breath. His voice sounded muffled.

“I be bwave,” Max whispered back, voice just as muffled.

Daddy scooped him up and brushed a hand over his head, killing the static that had little brown strands sticking up all over. “Brian’s scared of the doctor,” he said.

Max laughed because that was so silly, and the burst of air made him cough and blow nose-bubbles.

“Yikes,” Daddy said. He wiped Max’s nose with his bare hand.

~*~

Max liked his doctor. Her name was Dr. Mariel, she had hair like Aunt Daphne, and she always called him Mighty Max and gave him sunshine stickers.

Max didn’t cry when she held the cold thing against his back and told him to cough. Didn’t cry, either, when she stuck the little light in his ear until it beeped.

“You’re such a big boy, Mighty Max!” Dr. Mariel told him. “I bet you can’t show me your tongue!”

Max could! He stuck out his tongue, and Dr. Mariel put a popsicle stick on it and looked at his throat with a flashlight. It made his eyes water, made his tummy hurt. He gagged.

He didn’t like Dr. Mariel anymore.

“You’re okay,” Daddy said, cupping his hand over Max’s mouth to catch vomit should it fly.

Max gagged again. His mouth tasted watery, almost sweet, and spit dribbled out onto Daddy’s palm. His nose bubbled. He shut his eyes tightly.

“Woopsies!” Dr. Mariel exclaimed. “Choked you up, huh?”

Max held his arms out for Daddy. He wanted to cry.

~*~

After leaving the doctor, Daddy and Max picked up some medicine at the drug store and headed home.

Bine was watching TV on the couch, shirtless, wearing only jogging pants. He had a blanket across his lap and a little glass in his hand with brown liquid inside. His nose was red, cheeks redder.

“What’s my diagnosis?” He asked Daddy.

Daddy sat Max down on the couch, then dragged his fingers lightly across Bine’s bare shoulder. “In the words of Max’s pediatrician, you have an ‘icky, yucky cold, and Daddy’s going to give you some medicine to make you feel all better.’”

Bine made a noise with his teeth. He looked at Daddy’s zipper.

Max crawled onto Bine’s lap and touched the little glass in Bine’s hand with his finger. “I gots wed meh-spin,” he said.

Bine handed the little glass to Daddy. Wrapped his arms around Max. “How was it? You were brave?”

“I not cwy.”

“Good boy.” Bine smoothed back Max’s hair and kissed his forehead.

“Are you up for keeping him?” Daddy asked. He sat down on the end of the couch, on Bine’s feet, and opened the drug store bag. Pulled out a bottle of Max’s red medicine and a box of grown-up medicine for Bine.

Daddy had to go to work. He painted pictures.

Bine shrugged and asked Daddy for pills.

~*~

Max’s medicine tasted yucky. He swallowed a spoonful, threw it up, swallowed a spoonful, threw it up. By the time he had it down, his M is for Monkey shirt was pink. His nose was all bubbly, too, and his eyes were wet with tears.

Bine gave the medicine to him after Daddy left. Afterward, he took off Max’s dirty shirt and used it to wipe Max’s eyes, nose, and mouth. “Okay?” He asked.

Max sniffed and held his arms out for him.

Bine took Max upstairs and washed his face with a washcloth. Held a Kleenex to his nose and told him to blow. He dressed him in his new dinosaur pajamas, even though it was noon. They were brown with green stripes and little Brachiosauruses. Soft. Max liked the way they felt against his skin. Like puppy or kitty fur.

Bine and Max were on their way back downstairs when the doorbell rang. It was Grandma Debbie. She was holding a big bowl with silver paper on top and in her hair was a purple sparkle puff.

“Come to Gramma,” she said with a smile, handing the bowl to Bine. She took Max and squeezed him so hard he coughed. It was a loud cough; the force of it made Grandma Debbie’s hair move.

“Careful, Deb,” Bine said. “I’d hate for a fine dining establishment such as the Liberty Diner to lose its most cherished employee to sick leave.”

Grandma Debbie rubbed Max’s back. “I raised two obnoxious teenagers and a brother with AIDS. I can deal with it.”

Bine set the bowl on the kitchen counter.

“Jesus, listen to that rattle,” Grandma Debbie said, placing her hand on Max’s chest. “And he’s got a fever. Get me some Vicks VapoRub and a washcloth. Pronto.”

Grandma Debbie took off Max’s pajama top and spread funny green stuff on his chest. It made his skin tingle, his nose burn some. He could breathe, though, because it helped the bubbles go away.

Max slid his finger through the green stuff when Grandma Debbie and Bine weren’t looking. It was slimy, warm from the heat of his skin. He stuck his finger in his mouth and gagged a little. The green stuff was yucky.

He reclined on the couch with his monkey pillow pet…monkey started with M, like Max…and watched Bine talk to Grandma Debbie. Bine sniffed a lot. Rubbed his forehead and eyes with the back of his hand. Grandma Debbie wanted to stay, but Bine told her to go home. He didn’t want her to get sick like him and Max.

Grandma Debbie said a grown-up word and patted Bine’s face. His skin was pink, sweaty, eyes were dark. Max thought she must have really liked Bine. She wasn’t even his mommy, because she was Uncle Michael’s mommy, but she sometimes looked at Bine like Nana looked at Daddy.

~*~

After Grandma Debbie left, Bine went into the kitchen while Max dozed on the couch, closing his eyes but waking up over and over. His face felt hot, body cold. He shivered. Clutched his pillow pet.

A few minutes later, Bine came into the living room with a bowl of Grandma Debbie’s chicken soup. He set it on the coffee table and scooped Max into his arms.

“Hungry?” He asked. Rubbed Max’s back.

Max sat in Bine’s lap and Bine fed him like he was a baby, still. They ate the whole big bowl of soup together and watched the news. Bine had his bare feet propped up on the coffee table. His long legs cradled Max’s tiny ones.

~*~

When Daddy came home from work, Max was lying on Bine’s chest, just waking after a nap. He loved sleeping against Bine like that, because Bine’s chest was warm. He smelled like soap.

Daddy felt Max’s cheeks for a fever, then felt Bine’s. He exhaled loudly and sat down beside them.

Bine and Daddy talked a lot, but Max didn’t listen. He closed his eyes and felt the vibrations in Bine’s chest, the buzzing as Bine spoke.

He liked being with Daddy and Bine more than anything in the world. Liked their hugs and kisses, their tickles, their laughter. Liked how they asked him questions. Liked how warm they were when they held him, and how comfortable and safe it was to sometimes sleep in the big bed at night, snuggled between them.

But Max always felt the most comfortable, the safest, on Bine or Daddy’s chest. When he woke after naps, they were always there. He was never scared.

~*~

Max had to take more red medicine after dinner, but he didn’t throw it up this time. Daddy gave him a high-five and called him a big boy.

Bine took his medicine again, too. Little white circles that he ate with water. Max wanted to eat one, but Daddy told him no.

“They’re very, very dangerous,” he told Max.

“Bine has some.”

“Brian’s a grown-up. Pills are for grown-ups.” With his thumb, Daddy rubbed a spot of dried snot off Max’s upper lip. “They make little boys really sick.”

Max didn’t like being sick.

“You promise to never eat any?”

“I not eats.”

Daddy made a kiss-face and Max gave him a kiss. Daddy always kissed him, even when Max was sick. A _mmmwuh_ kiss.

Daddy wouldn’t kiss Bine, though.

“Unfair treatment, much?” Bine asked. He hooked his finger in the back pocket of Daddy’s pants.

Daddy smiled. “Don’t worry. I still plan to sneak-attack blow you in the hall closet.”

Bine laughed at that, and Max didn’t understand, so he sneezed instead. Lots and lots of bubbles came out, and Daddy grabbed a napkin with which to clean his face.

“Snot machine,” Daddy whispered, wiping under Max’s nose.

~*~

Max got to sleep with Bine and Daddy for the second night in a row.

He liked their bed because the sheets were extra soft and smelled like flowers. Max sniffed them really hard until he couldn’t sniff anymore.

“What’re you doing, Monster?” Bine asked. He grabbed Max and pulled him on top of him. Squeezed him tightly and tickled the backs of his legs.

Max sat on Bine’s stomach and patted Bine’s bare chest like a drum. The sound of his soft palms hitting flatly against skin was a _ttttkk_ , like water landing in a bucket. Max played drums while Daddy scooched up close, laid his head on Bine’s shoulder, and began to sing under his breath.

“Baby you're a rich man, baby you're a rich man, baby you're a rich man, too,” Daddy sang. “You keep all your money in a big brown bag, inside a zoo...”

“What a fing tah dooo!” Max yelled. He laughed when Daddy and Bine laughed, but that only made him cough.

Bine held onto him and didn’t turn away, even though Max’s coughs hit him right in the face. Puffs of warm, moist, cherry Tylenol breath. “Okay?” He asked. His voice was low and scratchy with a sore throat.

Max nodded and wiped his bubbly nose on his arm.

“I’m going to get so unbelievably sick,” Daddy whispered. He kissed Bine’s shoulder and reached up to pinch Max’s nose, clearing out the snot.

Bine shifted in bed. “We may as well make out.”

Daddy laughed and pulled the covers up to his chin.

Max slid off Bine’s stomach and buried himself in the space between his parents, safe and sound, snug as a bug.

He closed his eyes and listened to them talk for a while.

“How’re you feeling?”

“How’s it look like I’m feeling?”

Daddy made a noise with his teeth. “Want me to get you anything?”

“A blowj—”

“—torch?” Daddy cleared his throat.

“Yeah. Exactly. A very, very long, slow blowtorch.”

Max yawned. Daddy and Bine were so silly sometimes. He twisted in bed until he was lying on his back. Sniffed loudly.

He felt the soft brush of air from the dehumidifier slide across his face. His lips, nose, eyelashes, eyebrows, hair. He smelled Daddy and Bine, felt them, felt their warmth, their body heat, their comfort.

He drifted off to vibrations. To the low, deep, throaty sounds of Daddy and Bine whispering, laughing. To the kisses on his cheek, his forehead, his nose. He drifted off to the shifting bed as Bine rolled onto his side to get comfortable. To the sound of the lamp switching off, the alarm being set, and the puff of air by his ear… “Love you, Monster.”

So quiet, so soft, he barely even heard it.


End file.
